Updated: Friday, 11 Feb 2011, 8:56 PM ESTPublished : Friday, 11 Feb 2011, 8:56 PM EST
- Bill Tomison
- with reporting by Walt Buteau
CRANSTON, R.I. (WPRI) – A depleting disease is not enough to set back a local artist — and now her astounding images are attracting attention from around the world.
Many images created by Ruth Furtado now glow out of display cases at Pawtucket City Hall. You could call them an angelic accident. The life of the artist behind them is anything but easy.
She showed her virtual brushes to reporter Walt Buteau in this week’s Street Story. “As I start to move them apart,” Ruth said, “the figure begins to emerge — in between.”
Her specialty is fractally generated art — with a basis in mathematics and geometry. The black center of a red image is where Ruth first saw an angel. “They just kind of happen,” she said.
Then, Facebook moments happened. As has happened countless times before, one friend showed Ruth’s pictures to his friends, and they shared it with their friends, and the electronic angels kept going — reaching some twenty countries. They sparked comments and kind questions: “[One person asked] ‘How do you create such beauty with light?’ Which made me cry,” said Ruth.
Getting anywhere is draining for Ruth, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. She met the Eyewitness News crew atthe MS Dream Center in Cranston, where many MS sufferers gather to help each other through the disease. She must use a walker on wheels to get from the car to a table inside. She needs help setting up her computer, which is how she creates the fractal angels.
“When my MS started getting really bad, I honestly started thinking — I don’t want to live like this for the rest of my life,” she said. “But when this started, I realized… I have work to do now.”
“I don’t really believe they come from me; they come through me from somewhere else,” she said. “And that’s the part you worry makes you sound like a crack pot?” said Buteau. “Yes!” said Ruth with a laugh. “Just a bit.”
Ruth said everyone seems to see something different.
To take a look for yourself, click here to go to Ruth’s “A Host Of Angels” web site.
You can also click here to “Like” her work at her Facebook page.
View the WPRI.com video interview by clicking here
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